Отправлено Nuno Craveiro Lopes 17 Январь 2010, 22:07
Dear colleagues,In 1981, the orthopedic community got news through the Italian colleagues that in the confines of Siberia, based on a revolutionary theory of "Osteogenesis in distraction", a Russian professor named Gavril Ilizarov Abramovic, makes dwarves grow and treats cases of osteomyelitis, pseudarthrosis and bone defects with spectacular results, hard to achieved with the methods known at the time. This event leaded over the following 10 years, to a climate of enthusiasm for some and disparagement to others, leading in all over the world the formation of groups of orthopedists who, believing in the validity and importance of the method, were willing to deepen knowledge, analyze results and disseminate their onclusions, according to Western standards.

This has led to the birth of ASAMI Associations (Associations for the Study and Application of the Method of Ilizarov), whose valuable work, leaded to the fact that today, the methods of Ilizarov has a well established and universal place among the techniques used in orthopedicsand traumatology.

So the mission of ASAMI was achieved and other challenges wait for us.

It’s time to form a great society or Federation, including all societies, associations and groups of collegues dealing with external fixation, more scientifically sound and with a more organized and efficient basis, geared to the objectives we all consider important: scientific spirit, research, dissemination of knowledge, training of young colleagues, all this based on the new technologies of information.

This matter was introduced on the ASAMI general assembly held in St.Petersburg during the 5^th ASAMI International Congress, from 28 to 30 May 2008 under the chairmanship of Professor Shevtsov.

As it is known, it has created a serious dispute between 2 groups of delegates, because of several irregularities and illegalities.

In fact, starting with its call, various delegates, including the president, Prof. Bongiovanni, insisted repeatedly with ProfessorShevtsov for the need to make the general assembly of the ASAMI International on the afternoon of the first day of the congress or atmost on the 2nd day, in order to count with all the delegates. Shevtsov avoided to answer the president and the other delegates and finally atthe 2^nd day, announced that the assembly was scheduled to the last day after the closure of the congress, at 3PM. At that time, much of theWestern delegates were no longer present, and the discussions and votation would be affected by it.

Second, the ignorance of the delegates about the content of the statues of ASAMI International and the missing of the Italian delegate, Maurizio Catagni, founder of ASAMI, due to a illness, lead to the commitment of various irregularities, including illegal acceptance of 5 delegates (Afganistan - Mohamed Mussa Wardk, Armenia - Arshak Mirzoyan, Senegal - Mouhamadou Habib SY, Azerbeijan - Jabrayil Alexberov and Syria - Ghassan Salameh), a situation that by the statutes could only happen at the next meeting, after verifying that the delegates and respective group met the conditions of membership. These delegates came to the polls that followed, which according to the statutes also could not be done.

Third it is established by the ASAMI statutes published at http://www.asami.org/about/default.asp that the Russian delegate is onlyan honorary one, without voting capacity and obviously can not be voted to president. This is due to the fact that ASAMI was created to analyzeand criticize the method of Ilizarov, outside Russia, so its inclusion would represent a conflict of interests.

So the decisions we have taken in the S. Petersburg ASAMI assembly, are at least of dubious consistency, because we have not comply with the existing statutes or the elementary rules of general assemblies, justifying its repetition.

By the other side, although the ASAMI International is the oldest external fixation society and through its international meetings it has traditionally covered a large part of the subjects, in numerous countries the method was not embraced as the only one capable of addressing the issues at hand. That is how the idea of holding a world congress (WCEF) arose, in which opportunity would be given to discuss the variety of methods used in bone and limb reconstruction including all methods. We began to realise that ASAMI International meetings andWCEF Congresses brought together the same speakers and discussed virtually the same topics, with duplicity of financial expenditure, morewear and tear for speakers and a decline in the scientific level of the events since the same studies were being presented each year. One ofthe proposals at the St. Petersburg ASAMI meeting, was to postpone the congress scheduled to Brazil in 2010 two years, and to hold it jointly with WCEF at Barcelona. One of the major goals of this Congress is to draw a solid consensus with the aim of future organisation - through a World Federation or Association - of existing Societies worldwide devoted to external fixation, bone and limb reconstruction. We believethese topics are highly relevant both in developed and developing nations and that advances in the application of both mechanical andbiological systems should be disseminated with scientific rigour and clarity. So it is crucial to have a world forum where to debate theissue. Our intention is to accommodate all countries, with their specialists, to discuss and confront the various methods.

All we know how the St. Petersburg ASAMI assembly ended: Shevtsov was illegally elected president with the support of Gamal the delegate of Egypt, which got the post of general secretary, and the proposal was rejected.

After that Congress, many of the delegates meet again in the USA during the AAOS meeting with Catagni and Bongiovanni. The irregularitieshappened during the St. Petersburg assembly had been clarified and was decided to propose to the current directive committee of the ASAMIInternational, composed by Bongiovanni as past-president, Shevtsov as present-president and Craveiro Lopes as elected-president, that theBrazil Congress (Bahia), where it should be the next ASAMI International congress in 2010, will be postponed two years in favour of Barcelona,Spain, where the ASAMI Congress will be held in conjunction with the WCEF Congress, in order to discuss the proposed union of the two organizations, and repeat the general assembly of the ASAMI with a proper number and distribution of delegates. The Bahia Congress would be in 2012.

This proposal had the agreement of two of the three presidents (Bongiovanni and Craveiro Lopes)

Unfortunately Shevtsov defeated on the votation, decided to announce a congress aside, scheduled to Cairo.

The Barcelona Meeting 2010, joining the 6th Congress of the ASAMI International and the 3rd World Congress on External Fixation scheduledto October 20-22, is a unique opportunity to exchange views and decide the feasibility of merging the two organizations. It will be fundamental that we all be present and express our wishes and doubts, our proposals and agreements. Without all of you, the future of ASAMI International will be jeopardized.

We have no doubt that this meeting will be a success, both scientific as social and cultural.Official web site of the 6th ASAMI International & 3rd WCEF Combined Meeting.